Starry, Starry Night
by mysterious victoria
Summary: Based off of Josh Groban's take on the song "Vincent Starry, Starry Night " comes a co-written story between Brigette Janine and myself about a friend of Colonel Mustang who will help make the Elrics persevere and teach them of the concept of letting go.


**Disclaimer: I own absolutely squat that is related to Fullmetal Alchemist. Sadly.**

**A/N: So, this is co-written by me and Brigette Janine! Please enjoy our first oneshot together about our favorite character ... **

**A Starry, Starry Night**

Colonel Roy Mustang sat at his desk and looked up at the Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric and his younger brother, Alphonse Elric. He had his hands folded under his chin as Edward crossed his arms over his chest.

"Colonel,"

"No Ed, I'm not in the mood to be arguing with you over this." Mustang said resolutely as Ed fell more backward into the seat. Mustang sighed before standing up, "You need to get some fresh air. Away from Central or Eastern now that I think of it. I have a friend in West City who might be able to set you straight."

"Colonel–"

"That's an order Fullmetal." Mustang said turning to see Ed out of his peripheral vision. Ed was going to argue but held his tongue. "Be sure you're ready to leave early tomorrow morning."

* * *

By the time Ed and Al arrived at the station, Mustang was already waiting for them. He had changed out of his military uniform for once, and instead wore a white button-up shirt and khaki pants. "I was wondering if you were coming, Fullmetal," he called, "the train leaves in seven minutes."

There were going on one of the earliest trains, so once they had boarded, they didn't really speak, but Ed finally asked, "Colonel, could you tell me who exactly we're going to see?"

"I thought you weren't going to ask. I was actually getting a little worried at your indifference," Mustang said with a smirk.

"Just get on with it Colonel." Ed sighed exasperatedly.

"If you insist, her name is Oribel Hamilton."

". . . Isn't Oribel a guy's name?"

"I haven't heard it as one yet Fullmetal." Mustang said a little angrily. "I actually thought you'd enjoy this after Acorya." Mustang joked, which made Ed go slightly pink.

"Women." Ed sighed. "They're such pains,"

"Watch it Fullmetal." Ed looked at Mustang, first with annoyance, but once Ed saw Mustang's face, Ed's face dropped. "She's nothing like that woman in Acorya."

"Lieutenant Colonel," Al said, "how well do you know Miss Hamilton?" Mustang looked over at Al and smirked.

"We've been friends since we were children." Mustang explained.

"Really?" Al asked, quite surprised.

"Yeah,"

"Why do you think she'll be able to set us straight? What's with her that's so special?" Ed asked. Mustang looked down and away.

"She's blind and has a multiple issues with her heart and lungs. Also, she has disease that makes her inoperable, so, she's just waiting for her life to end." Ed actually gave in to a little bit of the shock that he was feeling. Al gasped. "She's been a ticking bomb since birth."

"Sorry," Ed said after a minute.

"I can still remember the day, the hour, that I got that phone call."

_ "Lieutenant Colonel, there's a phone call for you." Hawkeye said, covering the receiver of the phone with her hand. Mustang turned around. He looked at her with a bit of question, which made her continue, "It's from a hospital, in West City." Mustang's eyes went wide as he hastily grabbed the phone for Hawkeye._

_ "This is Colonel Mustang,"_

_ "Hello Colonel Mustang, my name is Doctor Paul Levi of West City Hospital. I'm calling you because you sir, were the first I've gotten into contact with about my patient." Doctor Levi explained._

_ "What patient Doctor?" Mustang demanded. _

_ "Her name is Oribel Hamilton." Doctor Levi explained, which made Mustang's stomach drop. Fear took over him as he continued to question him,_

_ "What happened?" He could hear the anger in his voice, which was not good. Hawkeye also caught it, and her head subtly perked up, as she secretly continued to listen to his conversation. _

_ "You see Colonel, there was a car accident. She was driving into town, apparently to get some food for a party for her friend. Her neighbor actually said that I should contact you." _

_ "What was the name of the neighbor?" Mustang asked._

_ "Ms. Podiean." Doctor Levi explained. _

_ "Ms. Podiean?" Mustang thought, "She still lives in West City?" _

_ "In the accident, there was a man who had a seizure while he drove, and he lost control of his car. So, the police assume from eyewitnesses that Mrs. Hamilton was crossing a four-way intersection, in which the man had sped up. He rammed into her car . . . driver side . . . full force. Colonel, she's lost her vision." _

_Mustang stood straighter, coming out of his leaning position on his desk, in shock. He massaged his forehead and faced the window._

_ "H-how could see have lost her vision?" Mustang asked quietly. _

_ "When the other man's car came in contact with Mrs. Hamilton's car, the pieces of glass . . ." Mustang already knew where this was going just because the doctor had said glass; he sat down. He cursed inside his head as Doctor Levi continued, "They came into her eyes. We can't fix them. The glass did its full potential damage. We tried our best save her sight; surgery on her eyes was too risky because of her condition."_

_ "Any surgery is dangerous in her situation damnit!" Mustang roared, banging his fist on the table. Hawkeye had tried not to jump when Mustang did that; Havoc, Fuery, Breda and Falman looked at each other a little concerned. _

_ "Colonel, I looked her medical records before I considered surgery; I understand." Doctor Levi said calmly, yet in the tone which suspected he knew Mustang would say something similar to that when he mentioned surgery. "Sir, you are more than likely the only family she has left besides her husband." _

_ "I will be down as soon as I can. Tomorrow morning." That's when all of them looked up at Mustang as he hung up the phone loudly. "Lieutenant Hawkeye, get me on the next train to West City." With that, he stormed out of the room and slammed the door on his way out._

"So . . . how bad was it?" Ed asked hesitantly Mustang.

"You'll see Fullmetal." Mustang said, "She's gotten better; I went to visit her about two years ago." Ed nodded.

"Sir, she's lost her vision completely? She can't see a thing?" Al asked, not being able to grasp that fact.

"She can only see so much Alphonse, but she gets by, if that's what you're getting at." Mustang said as he leaned back into his seat.

It wasn't less than an hour later that they had arrived in West City. Ed observed the modernization as soon as they exited the train station. Yet, there was also some countryside three miles after the station was out of sight. Ed considered West City a good mixture of Resembool and Central. It was maybe thirty minutes more until the three reached a house. It had a spacious estate with a not small yet not big house. It reminded Ed of Winry's house.

Mustang knocked on the door. A man answered the door; he looked Mustang's age, maybe a little younger. His pale brown hair dangled in front of his chocolate brown eyes. He was just about Mustang's height, but skinnier than the Lieutenant Colonel. When the man saw it was Mustang, he looked shocked.

"Mustang?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"Nice to see you Dominic," the Colonel replied.

"Please, come in. Oh . . ." the man Dominic didn't notice the two boys behind the Colonel.

"Oh, Dominic, this is Edward and Alphonse Elric."

"Nice to meet you boys, come in please." Dominic greeted waving them in. "I have to admit, I wasn't expecting a visit from you."

"I apologize for coming on short notice." Mustang apologized.

"It's alright." Dominic waved off. "It's not like we're busy with anything nowadays."

"How is she?" Mustang whispered. Dominic shrugged uneasily.

"She has these days where she can see more than usual and when she can barely see anything. And they've been accumulating in occurrences." Dominic explained seriously. Fear twisted inside Mustang's stomach at the thought. Yet Dominic nodded with a hint of a smile. "But she manages to get through the day, and she's happy. She's in the drawing room. I'll be over in a minute, I have lunch cooking, excuse me." Dominic then hurried away as Ed and Al paused to look around.

"Fullmetal," Mustang called to him. Ed and Al were shaken out of their observing and followed Mustang hastily down a long corridor with various and rather confusing paintings hanging on the wall.

"Oribel," Mustang greeted as the three of them walked through the door. Oribel turned her head in the direction of his voice, but her eyes did not follow. She smiled, her dimples showing in the sunlight. Now that Ed was getting a closer look at Oribel, he noticed that her eyes clouded by a faint whiteness. There was also what looked like cracks in the whiteness extending from a point on her eye. You could see her blue iris only through those "cracks", and then Ed realized what Mustang had meant when he said that she could only see so much.

"Roy Mustang . . . is that really you?" Oribel said smiling wider. Her voice was gentle and sweet, which reminded Ed of his mother. Ed saw Mustang actually smile; a genuine smile crossed his face as he walked towards her. "It's been so long," He went over to her as she stood up; he embraced her in a hug, which she gave back. A look of confusion came across her face as she said, "You've grown Roy. What've you been doing?"

Ed and Al looked at each other, "The Colonel's – _grown_?" Ed whispered, trying not to laugh.

"The usual Oribel," Mustang sighed.

"And does your guest like to tease you?" Oribel asked curiously. Ed became stunned at her comment; he didn't know she had heard him. She was smiling. The two broke from their embrace with Oribel's hand on Mustang's arm. "It's alright. I used to do that all the time when we were younger. He should be used to it by now."

"Edward, Alphonse; this is Oribel Hamilton." Mustang introduced.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Oribel said holding out her hand. Ed and Al looked at each other in confusion. "It's alright, just because I'm blind doesn't mean I don't want to shake hands." Ed went to shake her hand with hesitation, and he used his left hand. "Is something wrong with your right hand?" she asked. Ed cringed. "Let me see it." She held out her other hand. Ed wearily looked over at Mustang who nodded. Ed then placed his automail hand into hers, and Oribel had a chill sent up her spine. "Edward, can I take off your glove?"

"Yeah," Ed said after a moment's hesitation. Oribel curiously proceeded and took off his glove, trying to get her eyes to focus on his hand.

"Edward, do you mind if you help me sit on the floor please?"

"Something wrong?" Mustang asked seriously.

"No, I just want to see something." Ed helped her down to the ground, just as confused as the Colonel was. "I'm not crazy, believe me, I'm just trying to figure out something . . ." Then Oribel grabbed Ed's shoe off his right foot and felt his ankle. Then she did the same to the other foot and froze at the automail touch.

"Good God boy, what did you do to yourself?" Oribel asked nervously.

Ed whipped his head towards Mustang, who simply nodded. Oribel looked up intently at Ed, her unfocused eyes searching his face blindly.

And he began talking. He told this woman, a complete stranger, about what they had done. He told her about his mother, and how that bastard had left her alone. How she hid her illness from them until she died. He told her about their plans to bring her back, and their training under Izumi. His voice broke a bit as he described that day and what happened.

"Then the Colonel came," he said, "and told me I could become a State Alchemist and I might be able to get Al's body back. I couldn't go around without an arm and a leg, though, so my friend Winry gave me automail. I passed the State Alchemy exam, and that's why I'm here today," he finished.

Oribel nodded silently, "Roy," she addressed the Colonel who had been listening silently from a chair in the corner, "can you help me up?"

Mustang jumped out of his chair and helped his friend up. Oribel settled herself back in bed and turned her face to Ed and Al. "I don't know much about alchemy, but I do know what you boys did was wrong," she started, "but you did it for love. You were children, and didn't know what to do. Alphonse, how old are you?"

"I'm twelve."

She passed a hand over her unseeing eyes, "Yet you speak with the burden of old men, both of you. It's a tragedy. To experience firsthand death at such a young age. You must remember that. Don't let the past weigh you down. Remember it, but don't ever regret it. You two are all the other has and in the end, that's what matters."

"But what about getting our original bodies back?!" cried Ed, "Are you telling us to forget that?"

"Of course not!" cried Oribel, "Pursue your goals regardless of any obstacles. Just don't let the past bog you down. Remember good times, and look at bad things as learning experience, not failures. If we look at every bad thing as a failure, we never get anywhere." She began to cough heavily, and Mustang rushed to her side. "Oh, Roy, I'm fine," she dismissed him, but her coughing continued.

Mustang leaned out the door and called for Dominic. He came rushing in with a glass of water and a bottle of medicine. Dominic measured out two spoonfuls of the clear medicine and eased them down his wife's mouth. The coughing subsided, and Oribel fell asleep.

"It calms down the cough, but it makes her tired," Dominic explained, pulling the blankets up to her chest.

"Last time I was here, you only had to give her half a spoonful," Mustang said, concerned.

"She doesn't act like it, but she's getting worse. About a month ago, she started coughing up blood and the doctor said she had about a month and a half, but now we're down to a few weeks."

"Damnit," whispered Mustang, holding his face in one hand.

Ed looked concerned, "Is there anything we can do?" he asked.

Dominic looked out the window, "Pray she passes away peacefully."

"Ok," Al responded.

Dominic invited them to stay for lunch, but Mustang declined, "We need to get back to Central. Tell her that we didn't want to wake her up to say good-bye." He shook Dominic's hand warmly.

"Come back soon, ok? She enjoys visits from you."

"I'll try to get away from my work sometime," Mustang said earnestly.  
Dominic turned to the brothers, "You boys don't be strangers either; Oribel loves visitors."

"We'll visit soon," promised Al.

"Yeah," agreed Ed, but his mind was somewhere else.

* * *

They walked into the warm afternoon sunlight and as they walked towards the station, Ed looked at Mustang, "How does she live like that?"

"Every day without regret," replied Mustang, "she's been like that since we were kids."

Ed stopped in the middle of the street. Mustang looked over his shoulder, "You coming, Fullmetal?"

"I-I just wish-that I could be that strong," he said shaking, "knowing that I may die, but not being afraid, or haunted by those memories."

Mustang walked to his subordinate and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. Normally, Ed would flinch, but he remained still. "You know, I really think that you can be that strong, Ed. You just have to focus on the goal and accept other people's help sometimes. That's one of the reasons I brought you to see Oribel."

Ed looked up at him and smiled. "You know, Colonel, you're not that bad a guy," he paused for a moment, "If you would stop being such a jerk sometimes."

"And you'd actually make a decent soldier if you didn't whine so much, Fullmetal."

They stared at each other, then broke out laughing. They arrived at the station just in time to get the next train to Central.

They remained silent on the train ride back, each reflecting on the day's events.

When they finally arrived in Central, they parted at the gates, Ed and Al going to the hotel they were staying in and Mustang heading back to his apartment.

Before he was out of sight, Ed called to Mustang's back, "Hey Colonel!"

Mustang turned around.

"Thanks."

Mustang waved and resumed his path home.

"You know, brother," said Al, "I think the Colonel really cares about us and our plan."

"Yeah, I guess," said Ed.

* * *

Roy Mustang closed the door to his apartment behind him, not bothering to turn on the lights just yet. He made his way to the single bedroom and picked up the phone on the small writing desk. He dialed a number with the West City area code.

Dominic picked up. "Hey, Dominic, it's Roy again. Is Oribel up yet?"

"You must be psychic, Roy. She just woke up five minutes ago."

"Can I talk to her?"

"Sure."

There was a moment of silence before he heard Oribel's voice on the other line, "Hello, Roy."

"Hello Oribel," he said, "I wanted to thank you for what you said to those boys; it really helped them out."

"They're really determined, aren't they?"

"You have no idea. I almost had to court-marshal Ed to get his automail repaired once."

"Go easy on them, Roy. They still are children."

"Yeah," he said, looking out the window, "sometimes Ed is so determined to get his brother's body back; I forget he's only thirteen."

Oribel laughed, "To think he's only sixteen years younger than you, and you're his commanding officer."

"I laugh at the irony too sometimes."

"Thank you for visiting me today, Roy. I've missed seeing you."

"I'll visit again soon, I promise."

"Bring Riza along; I haven't seen her in ages."

"I will. Take it easy, Oribel."

"Don't overwork yourself either, Roy."

"I'll try," he said wryly.

"Good-bye."

"Bye." He placed he phone gently in the cradle and looked at the late afternoon sun.

It was too late to get anything done at the office, so he spent the next few hours with a cup of tea, watching people pass from his third-story window. He reflected on what Oribel had said that day, and realized she was speaking to all three of them, not just the brothers. He leaned against the window. "You always know when you're right, Oribel. You knew what we all needed, didn't you?"

That night was the first night that he didn't dream of Ishval, Scar, or flame alchemy in a long time.

* * *

  
Oribel had pondered on the visit and upon Roy's following call; she smiled. It was nice to see him. She had heard of the trials of Ishval from Roy after the accident because he had remained in West City that entire week until she returned home. He had never seemed so burdened and Oribel's face dropped at the thoughts creeping into her mind, the accident and what she heard in her hospital room while everyone thought she was sleeping. But, she shook her head and thought back to a particular time when she and Roy were younger.

_ "Hey Roy! Hold on!" Oribel exclaimed running down the vacant street, trying to catch up with her running companion. They were both around fifteen-years-old at the time, both growing up physically and mentally; emotionally was a different story. Both of them had deaths in their families at a young age, but they both had families. The two considered each other family. Their neighbor, Ms. Penelope Podiean, who eventually became their teacher during school, had taken the grandmother role during their youth. Roy Mustang, now a quite thin but handsome adolescent, looked over his shoulder and slowed down as Oribel caught up with him. "Since when – when, were you so fast?" Oribel panted with a smile._

_ "You just haven't noticed Oribel." Roy said, slinging his arm around her shoulders. Oribel smiled and did the same as the two continued down the street. _

_ "So, since we have no homework, what did you think of Ms. Podiean's lecture?" Oribel asked._

_ "It was boring." Roy shrugged exasperatedly._

_ "What?! I thought it was so interesting!" Oribel exclaimed._

_ "That's because you always think ahead Ori," Roy said simply. Oribel gave him a look._

_ "Well, since we have nothing to do, I'm going to give you my twist on her lecture." Oribel said as Roy laughed._

_ "Shoot." Roy encouraged._

_ "So, I know what I want to be. A doctor." Roy nodded, "And you know what you want to be, an Alchemist." He nodded again as Oribel continued, "And we both want to stay in touch and be somewhat close, so we can see each other a lot."_

_ "Agreed. Where're you going with this?" Roy asked._

_ "Hold on! I'm getting there!" Oribel persisted, gently tugging on his arm, which made him chuckle, and she continued, "So, we both go to our training. It depends really on where _you_ train to depend where _I_ train. But we train close, you go to Central to become and Alchemist, I stay in Central for your preparations and exam, you get in and receive your certification,"_

_ "And I'll be helping _you _get _your _certifications and education to become a doctor," Roy added._

_ "And we'll just move wherever when the wind changes," Oribel shrugged looking out, envisioning their scheme._

_ "I like that plan." Roy said with a smile. "Let's do it,"_

"Ha, what a plan that became." Oribel breathed before chuckling. "It was going good for awhile there though, wasn't it?"

It was a quiet night after that. Oribel went to bed earlier than usual and lie down contemplating for an hour or so. Dominic came into their bedroom maybe three hours later, and he quietly and softly came into their bed. Oribel turned over and saw him get in.

"Sorry honey, I didn't mean to wake you." Dominic apologized.

"I wasn't sleeping, just reminiscing." Oribel said sitting up as she leaned closer to Dominic who hugged her. Oribel hugged him back with a smile. "It was great to see Roy," Dominic nodded.

"Yeah, he looks great."

"You're lying." Dominic looked down at his wife, very confused. Oribel was quite serious. "Just by hugging him I could tell he's skinnier and even more tired and stressed than when he last came."

"But Oribel . . ." Dominic hesitated on saying it, and Oribel felt his hesitation. However, he thought he should say it, and he did. "You should've seen his face when he saw you smile." Oribel's face dropped in surprise. Dominic chuckled, "He was so happy. Genuinely happy. To see you still being you," Oribel's eyes wandered around for a minute as she figured out the right words to say.

"Really?" There was a bit of breathlessness and awe in Oribel's voice. Her blue eyes searched rapidly and blindly for Dominic's face.

"Yeah, it was great. And it was so quick how he changed . . . when I opened the door, he was the serious military Mustang. But when he saw you and you smiled at him, it was seeing a different person come out of him." Dominic explained. Oribel hesitated on letting a smile cross her face, but she eventually did.

"That means he's still the same Roy from our childhood," Oribel said with tears secretly gathering in her eyes. "At least his end of the bargain came out good,"

* * *

Roy was signing a pile of papers the following week; however, all of his subordinates saw his change of mood. It wasn't seen all the time. It came and went as days began and ended; sort of like a mood swing. However, only the Elrics and Riza Hawkeye knew the reason behind his behavioral changes. Ed and Al had also changed their outlook because of Oribel Hamilton, and once they got their bodies back, they would go back to Oribel's house, regale her and her husband Dominic, and then help her regain her eyesight if it was possible.

As his subordinates, Hawkeye, Havoc, Breda, Falman and Fuery entered one day for work, there was a telephone call. Since Roy wasn't there, Havoc picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hello . . . is Lieutenant Colonel Mustang there?"

"Not at the moment, he should be arriving any minute–"

"Havoc."

"Excuse me a moment sir," Havoc turned to face his superior who was confused.

"Who's on the phone?" Roy asked walking over to him.

"I'm not sure, but he wants you." Havoc said handing him the phone. Roy took it as Havoc went back to the rest of them.

"Who was it?" Breda asked. Havoc shrugged.

"Whoever he was, seemed upset." Havoc explained rubbing the back of his head.

"This is Lieutenant Colonel Mustang." Roy said.

"Roy,"

"Dominic, hi! How's things?" Roy asked, taken by surprise.

"Roy . . . I'm sorry . . ." Roy froze. He had inwardly gasped, but it became external anyway. His stomach plummeted, and his face dropped. Roy closed his eyes as he massaged his forehead with his other hand.

"What happened?" Roy asked quietly as he looked out the window. As the Lieutenant Colonel was talking, Ed and Al walked into the room to say goodbye and tell Mustang that they were off on their next mission, following their current lead on the Philosopher's stone. Mustang's subordinates turned to them.

"Hi Chief, Alphonse," Havoc greeted.

"Boys leaving so soon?" Hawkeye asked.

"Yeah, we have our new lead." Al explained excitedly. They all smiled, but Ed looked behind them to see the Lieutenant Colonel talking.

"What's wrong with the Colonel?" Ed asked, nodding his head towards him.

"We're not sure," Breda explained uneasily. That's when the room came into silence and tension filled the air when Mustang hung up the phone. There was a stiffness in the air that they could all feel, that could easily have choked them while Roy had not turned to them.

"Colonel, we're gonna be going," Ed explained. Ed and Al were about to walk out the door.

"Fullmetal." Mustang's voice had shook, and his tone was not the formal military tone that he had always used in the office. Ed and Al turned around, and so did Mustang. "Oribel's dead." Al gasped, and Ed froze, but infuriated. Hawkeye had looked downward.

"What?! How?! Dominic said the doctor told them weeks!" Ed argued angrily.

"That was a time frame Fullmetal." Roy said shaking his head. "That wasn't a guarantee." Ed's eyes widened, and he looked down, his bangs falling into his eyes, trying not to cry. The other subordinates had focused more on their superior than Ed because none of them had seen Roy Mustang, Hero of the Ishval War, the Flame Alchemist, ready to cry.

**R&R! ****~Mysterious Victoria**


End file.
